20161120 - 60,000 mile maintenance and compression test

Cost of ownership (below) is going down, although, if I were letting the dealer do my maintenance, I'm pretty sure my cost of ownership wouldn't be going down.    This cycle, I decided to let BMW of Riverside change out my tires and do my rear brakes.  I think it's important to let the dealership do some work, sometimes.  It keeps a relationship open that may help down the road...like if I need to replace my whole engine.  That said, I also needed to replace the rear tire pressure sensor that broke off the stud a couple hundred miles before my last service.  I couldn't get the stud when I was having the new tire mounted, so I had to do without.  That sensor cost me $165 and they charged me $80 to install it because they found that the old one didn't work, after they had the tire mounted, so they had to break the bead, install it, re-install the tire and program it.  I could have done the rear brakes myself; but, again, I think it's important to open a relationship with the dealership.  More likely than not, I'll replace them next time.

I believe in owning up to my actions.  There were curves, many of them.  I was riding with someone who rides faster and smoother (read much more experienced than I am).  That causes me push myself and, my bike.  I've been harder on my tires and brakes in the last 4,000ish miles than the previous 4,000ish.  When I say hard, what I'm talking about is screaming into one turn after another, braking hard, nearly to or right up to the apex and then smoothly, consistently and continuously applying throttle until the next turn, when it's time to get on the brakes again.   I have been riding the canyons of southern California and Arizona and have had more opportunity to destroy tires and brakes than in Florida, where things are straight and flat.  Adding to the injustice my bike has experienced, at my hand, is the fact that I also like the slow ride.  Every traffic light is an opportunity to do the slow ride.  I trail brake.  At this service, two tires and my rear brake pads died a premature and grizzly death.  In fact, my rear tire had evidence of having been ridden on the sidewall.  That happened when I was entering an on ramp and the rear end tucked under after sliding on the paint.  I recovered that one; but, not before putting some wear on the right sidewall.

Particularly interesting about this maintenance was that I planned to boroscope and compression test the engine.  This was necessary to instill confidence in the engine that was lost when I started consuming oil.  There are other posts on this; but, in short, after my 36,000 mile service (read warranty expired), I got a warning light before the next due service and I've had consumption issues amounting to about 300CCs/6000 miles since.  Every dealer I've asked...and it's been many, all indicate that this is normal.  I have a really hard time believing that BMW would see that as normal on an engine that should have a whole lot more life in it.

An added surprise was that my friend Paul made me a tool to make it nearly impossible to strip out the 5mm allen bolt for the sump.  The issue there is that if you don't put the 5mm allen key in there perfectly straight, you can round out the inside and that, my friends, is an expensive problem to fix, as it requires a new oil pan.  I know from experience.

So, this service:

Air Filter change
Oil Change + Filter
Rear drive oil change
Spark plug change
Coolant change
2 Michelin Road Pilot 4 GT tires
Rear brakes

The compression test results for this 3 y/o, 60,000 mile K1600GT:
Cylinder 1:  15 bar, 216 ftlbs
Cylinder 2:  15 bar, 216 ftlbs
Cylinder 3:  15 bar, 216 ftlbs
Cylinder 4:  15 bar, 220 ftlbs (just a little over 15 bar)
Cylinder 5:  15 bar, 216 ftlbs
Cylinder 6:  15 bar, 216 ftlbs

My borescope, made by Milwaukee, was unable to produce a view that allowed me to see anything other than the piston head.  There was a little carbon on the piston heads; but, I was unable to see anything else.  To even get that, we sanded down the tip of the borescope so it would pass through the tiny spark plug gap.

So, do I have more confidence in my bike now that I've compression tested it and borescoped it as best I could?  Yes, a little.  I did see a bit of a mess on top of my valve cover.  It's possible that some oil is leaking from there, and it's possible that it's in the right quantity.  I made sure to clean up the valve cover really good this time.  When I get in there for the 72,000 mile service, I will pop the valve cover off and reseal it.

Disturbing to me was that I only drained about 50cc out of my rear end.  I didn't measure it; but, it couldn't have been more.  I filled it with 180cc's.  Harry, the mechanic that did my tires and brakes found the fluid all over everything.  I think that's because I'm a messy Marvin.  I will have to keep an eye on this.

I have to say that this service went a little smoother than the 48,000-mile service because I was able to apply lessons learned.  I did not disassemble the radiator this time, and I'm getting faster putting the Tupperware back on.  It still takes about half an hour to disassemble and an hour to reassemble.

I also learned that it is much easier to use vacuum to pull cooling fluid through the radiator than to try to do it manually.  I didn't know it for this service and ended up shaking the shit out of my motorcycle to get the air bubbles out of the radiator.  Next time, I'll pull some vacuum from the water pump and make things easier.   It's interesting that the service manual doesn't call for this; but, when I asked at the dealership, they said it's the only way.  Chances are, this will save me an hour or so next time.

In all, this service took 12 hours as opposed to 1 week, completely due to parts that were needed to replace parts that were found to be damaged through prior maintenance.  That being said,  I was definitely not upset about getting to spend a week with my friend Scot and his family in Ohio for that service.

Some pics: